Drinking, Driving Target Of Tv Attack

August 31, 1988|By New York Times News Service.

The three major television networks and the Hollywood studios that create most of their programming are joining in a coordinated attack against drinking and driving that will include dialogue in popular entertainment shows as well as public-service advertising.

The campaign will begin around Thanksgiving and will encourage the use of ``designated drivers,`` a concept in which members of a group pick one individual who refrains from drinking and takes the others home.

Harris L. Katleman, the president of the television division of the 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., said he expected every scene at a party or in a tavern in his studio`s shows to include a mention of designated drivers.

The studio`s shows include ``L.A. Law,`` ``Mr. Belvedere`` and

``Hooperman.``

``If you`re doing a scene in `L.A. Law` where the characters are in a bar and one of them says, `Have a drink,` another will respond, `No, I`m driving tonight,` or, `No, I`m the designated driver,` `` Katleman said. ``It`s not difficult at all.``

In addition, the networks will create their own commercials promoting the use of designated drivers and blend them into their public-service campaigns. The project was disclosed Tuesday by Jay A. Winsten, an assistant dean of the Harvard School of Public Health and the director of its Center for Health Communication, which developed the project.

While research by the Gallup Organization indicates that 78 percent of all drivers would be willing to serve occasionally as designated drivers, most Americans are relatively unfamiliar with the system, which has long been popular in Europe.

The Harvard Alcohol Project, as the cooperative effort is called, is intended ``to model a new social norm by reaching 240 to 250 million Americans, working through news organizations, public service announcements and the entertainment media,`` Winsten said.

The campaign will be based on research conducted by Gallup and by Saatchi & Saatchi DFS Compton, one of the nation`s largest advertising agencies.

While there have been informal attempts in the past to coordinate advertising and entertainment programming, said Grant Tinker, a former chairman of NBC and now the president of GTG Entertainment Inc., ``there has never been anything this organized.``

Tinker said, ``You couldn`t have enough billboards or skywriting or newspapers`` to equal the impact of a star like Michael J. Fox talking about designated drivers on one episode of ``Family Ties,`` a popular NBC series.